


Acknowledgement

by crytalstellar



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Revelation Path Spoilers, Tags May Change, might have love triangle, takumi just wants nee-san to notice him
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-03 04:38:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6596968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crytalstellar/pseuds/crytalstellar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Takumi wants is to be acknowledged by Kamui. But once he gets that, he realizes that he wants more than just that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. exclusion

**Author's Note:**

> help. i'm stuck in otouto hell and i thought i got out but here i am again. i just want more takukamu dammit. and more leokamu... wait is there even a ship name for that? 
> 
> i actually haven't written a damn thing in, like, forever plus it's not beta'ed so there might be issues littered all over the place. but i hope you guys enjoy it either way. O_O

It only takes mere seconds to aim before Takumi releases the bowstring. Takumi’s lips curl into a slight smirk as the arrow hits the target dead center. If this were a battle that shot would have killed someone. Takumi stares at the target for a moment before letting out an aggravated sigh. It feels like all he’s been shooting at lately is targets. Despite joining Kamui’s army to defeat whatever greater evil was out there, his sister had not once let him see the battlefield. It didn’t bother him at first since he was reluctant to join Kaumi’s cause in the first place, but…

Takumi shakes his head, trying to not think of Izana, who sacrificed his life just to convince him listen to his sister’s plight. He tries to distract himself and reaches for another arrow only to find that the quiver is empty. Takumi’s gaze returns to the target, with a dozen arrows bunched up around the target’s center. He’s made sure to keep up with his training and there’s no doubt that he’s the best archer in the army, but then again, he’s also the only one. Even so, he wonders why Kamui doesn’t let him fight too. How is he supposed to honor a dying man’s wish from the sidelines?

Takumi gently places the practice bow down to retrieve the arrows. He’s halfway to the target before he hears a commotion coming from the direction of the main camp. From a distance he sees Hinata and Oboro racing toward the target range, most likely with some sort message for him.

Hinata is the first to speak when they get to him, “Ha! I got to Lord Takumi first!”

Oboro is less than a millisecond behind. “Don’t be dumb, we got to him at the same time.”

“Nuh-uh!”

The two start bickering, as they always do, and Takumi looks between them fondly. It isn’t until before long that a dark thought begins to prod at him from the back of his mind. Kamui has asked both of them to fight on a couple occasions. The same could be said of Sakura’s retainers…. In fact, Sakura has been on the battlefield too, healing the injured, and not just her, most everyone in the army has been out on the battlefield at least once- including the farmer girl that Kamui had rescued. Why had he been left out? Why was it just him?

“…Lord Takumi?”

Oboro’s voice snaps him back to reality. Both his retainers are giving Takumi a worried look, but he merely shrugs it off. There’s no way he can tell them what he’s thinking. Both Hinata and Oboro look at him like he’s the most amazing person in the world and Takumi has no desire to tell them about all the fears and doubts that defy that belief. “It’s nothing. Did you guys have something to tell me?”

“Ah yes!” Hinata bursts out. “We heard that we’re going to battle tomorrow!”

_Another battle that I won’t be in_ , Takumi thinks bitterly and moves toward the target to pull out his arrows. “And?”

“We noticed that Lady Kamui hasn’t let fight yet,” Oboro adds solemnly. It seems they noticed. He should have known Takumi looks at her and Hinata, who’s bobbing his head up and down in agreement.

“Yeah! And we asked if she’d let you show your awesome skills on the battlefield but she said she wouldn’t listen to us!” Hinata exclaims, his voice laced with confusion and a small tinge of anger.

“Well, what she said was that she would rather you ask instead of us, Lord Takumi,” Oboro corrects, crossing her arms, a small frown on her face.

“Yeah! So you gotta go ask her if you can fight tomorrow!”

Takumi contemplates his response. He’s happy that his retainers have gone out of their way to ask if he could participate in battle, but he’s reluctant to ask Kamui to fight. He’d prefer to not interact with her if he could avoid it, but he also doesn’t want to be stuck shooting targets at the range every day. “I will speak to her…later.”

Hinata and Oboro both let excited cheers and Takumi forces himself to give them a small smile. He may have told them later, but he wasn’t quite sure of when that ‘later’ would be.

-

It isn’t until dusk that Takumi gets another visitor on the target range. He’s gathering all of the used arrows to put away when Kamui’s ever loyal butler, Jakob shows up, his face as unreadable as usual.

“It seems that you’re still here,” Jakob comments, his voice sounding slightly disinterested.

“So what?’ Takumi’s tone makes it clear that he has no desire to speak with Jakob.

“I heard from your retainers that you are going to participate in the next battle,” Jakob’s tone remains even and Takumi watches him with wary eyes. He hasn’t interacted much with the butler, but he knows enough about him to know that his only concern is Kamui and thus has no desire to meddle in the affairs of others. “I also heard my lady tell them that she will only allow it should you ask.”

“What’s your point?” Takumi frowns.

Jakob’s gaze turns severe. “I do not wish for my lady to be bogged down by some _bratty, weakling prince_. If you do not intend to assist her cause with your best, then you are better off here.”

Takumi feels a surge of anger at Jakob’s blatant insults. “ _Excuse me_? What did you call me?”

Jakob’s response is a mocking look in his eyes. Takumi angrily shoves the rest of the arrows in the quiver and marches right up to Jakob, his eyes glimmering with rage. Jakob’s expression remains the same and the two stare each other down for a couple moments before Takumi shoves the quiver into Jakob’s arms.

“’A bratty weakling prince?’” Takumi echoes Jakob’s words as he stomps off back toward the camp, intending to find Kamui as soon as humanly possible. “I’ll show you just what this ‘bratty weakling prince’ is capable of!”


	2. entrance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takumi, fueled by rage, goes to Kamui's room to discuss his involvement in the army.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, thank you to everyone who commented! Y'all made my day! There was one I saw about an hour before I got off of work and it gave me the energy to get through the rest of my shift! /o/
> 
> This chapter's been done for a couple days (I finished it before I even wrote the first chapter of that Leofic that I started), but I just finally got to proofreading it today. I also struggled a bit with a couple of scenes and how I wanted to portray Kamui. Love-Hate relationships fuel my fire but.... that's an idea for another fic. 
> 
> I proofread, but I am also very sleepy, so I might have missed one or two things. Coulda waited too but... I wanted it up today. /nod

Of all the people in Kamui’s army, Takumi is known as the most methodical and cautious. It could be said that he’s one of the most intelligent of those in the army. That being said, the way he unceremoniously barges into Kamui’s room without so much as a knock can be characterized as anything but cautious or intelligent.

“Sister!” Takumi bursts through Kamui’s door with such force that the door nearly comes off its hinges. His eyes scan the room until they find her in the middle of the room staring back at him, her eyes as wide as saucers. Takumi’s eyes travel down and find that she's halfway done unbuttoning the shirt she always wears under her armor. He feels the blood rush to his face and promptly slams the door shut.

Takumi turns on his heel, fully intending to leave and pretend the whole thing never happened, but Kamui’s voice from the other side of the door stops him.

“Takumi, are you still there? If you wouldn’t mind giving me a minute, please…”

Takumi momentarily considers just leaving but before he can decide, the door opens and Kamui motions for Takumi to come in. He notices that instead of changing into whatever she was about to change into, she merely buttoned up her shirt back up.

“Takumi?”

Kamui’s looking at him expectantly, but somehow he’s caught like a deer in the headlights, having forgotten the reason he’d come to her room in the first place. Instead, Takumi blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. “Ah… Uh… You… you should be careful where you get changed!”

Kamui gives Takumi a confused look. “This… is my room.”

And he should have knocked. Takumi averts his eyes from his sister’s form, as if doing so can hide his embarrassment from such an idiotic statement. “...yes. Yes, it is.”

An awkward silence passes between the two. All the while, Takumi mentally berates himself. Jakob’s words had made him so angry that he not only completely forgot himself, but made a fool of himself before Kamui. In the back of his mind, a voice tells him that the misstep is enough for his sister to change her mind about letting him fight. If she does that…

Takumi can picture both Hinata and Oboro prostrating before her, begging her to change her mind… He can’t let it come to that. If it comes to that, he needs to find a way to convince her to let him on the battlefield...

“Takumi?” Her expression is confused again. When she realizes she has his attention, she gives him a small smile, as if to comfort him. It helps, just a tiny bit, although he’s not ready to admit that at all. “Judging from the way you burst in, I’m guessing you must have something to discuss me.”

Takumi crosses his arms and nods. “I do.”

Kamui’s smile widens just a bit. From the way she smiles, the Hoshidan prince gets the feeling that she knows the exact reason he’s come. A small part of him wonders if she had even asked Jakob to convince him to come. But then again, if she really wanted him to join, wouldn’t she ask him herself?

“What is it?”

“I…” Takumi hesitates for just a moment. He wouldn’t outwardly admit it, but there’s a part of him that is happy to know that Kamui is willing to let him fight on the condition that he vocalizes the desire to, but as he thinks more on it, he realizes that there’s a bigger question burning at him. “…I want to know why you won’t let me fight.”

His sister’s expression changes and it’s clear that she wasn’t expecting him to ask that. She averts her eyes and takes a deep breath before she speaks in a soft voice. “Because you didn’t seem to want to.”

Takumi looks away. She’s right. He didn’t want to fight, at least not for _her_ or _her_ cause. She said she was fighting a greater enemy, someone or something that was bigger and more dangerous than Nohr, but she couldn’t say who or what it was. It was suspicious, so of course he would be doubtful of her. Even if Sakura trusted her, there was no way Takumi could do the same. Not that easily.

“Xa-” She hesitates and Takumi looks up at her again. Kamui’s got a faraway look and her eyes, and even though she stopped herself he knows her mind is on her Nohrian ‘siblings.’ “Someone once told me that a soldier who doesn’t fully believe in what he’s fighting for is more of a liability than an asset.”

There’s a small part deep in Takumi’s heart that wants to get angry at what her words, but he can’t deny that she has a point. He’s heard Ryoma say something similar before.

“I know you have your doubts, and I can’t blame you.” Kamui crosses her arms, her lips turned down in frustration. “And you don’t know how much I wish I could tell you, all of you, who our real enemy is. If I could, everything would be so much easier.”

Kamui heaves out a sigh. “But all I can do is to ask you to put your faith in me and lend me your strength.”

Takumi doesn’t say anything as Kamui stares at him with an expectant expression. After a moment of silence, Kamui lets out a small chuckle. “Sorry. I know I told Oboro and Hinata that I would only let you fight if you asked me, but that sounded more like I was asking you.”

With a slight smile on her face, the princess approaches Takumi and outstretches her hand to him. He looks down at it then back up at her. He’s never really looked Kamui in the eye before, but beyond the deep red of her irises he can see a strong conviction behind them. Something about it reminds him of their strong and willful older brother. If Ryoma were here would he trust Kamui?

“I… I can’t say that I completely trust you.” Takumi reaches down and grabs Kamui’s hand, gripping it hard and shaking it with a little more force than necessary. “But, if you let me, I’ll fight for you and I’ll get to the bottom of all of this.”

Kamui’s grin widens and her other hand moves, covering the back of his outstretched hand, mirroring his actions. He jumps a little, surprised by her action, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “Thank you so much, Takumi! You don’t know how much this means to me!”

-

About an hour after Takumi leaves Kamui’s room, the princess hears a knock at her door. She bids her visitor permission to enter. The door slowly opens and Jakob steps in. “My lady.”

“Jakob.”

“Did he come to see you?”

Kamui nods. Her expression turns thoughtful. “…what did you say to him?”

“Only what I thought was necessary.”

She frowns slightly, her face reddening a little in embarrassment at the memory of how Takumi just barged into her room without knocking. Kamui hopes that Jakob doesn’t notice. If she were to tell the butler what had transpired, she wouldn’t be surprised if she were to find Takumi injured or worse the next day.

But, unfortunately for Kamui, Jakob immediately realizes something is awry. “Did something happen, my lady?”

Kamui shakes her head. She can’t tell him. Part of her also fears that if Jakob finds out and goes after Takumi, it could negatively affect the fragile bud of a relationship she’s finally managed to start with him. “It’s nothing.”

Whether or not Jakob believes her doesn’t show on his face, so the princess can only hope he does. Or if he doesn’t he’ll leave it be. “Did everything work out like you hoped it would?”

“More or less.”

“I see.” Pause. “My lady, if you would allow me.”

Kamui looks up at Jakob, a little confused. It’s very rare that Jakob asks to offer his own personal opinion. She also vaguely wonders why he even asks because she never refuses him, but Jakob is very firm about his position as her butler even if she’s always regarded him as her friend. “Go ahead, Jakob.”

His brows furrowed a little. “If you wanted Lord Takumi to fight alongside you, why didn’t you ask him yourself instead of finding a way to have him ask you?”

Kamui laughs a little. “I really wanted him to ask me himself because I thought if he did then he would be more receptive to us working together as a family… but despite asking for your help to convince him, I ended up asking him myself anyway.”

“Is that it?”

Kamui’s expression becomes a little more somber. “He…. He also reminds me a little bit of me when I was younger.”

Jakob gives his master an incredulous look. He cannot begin to imagine how or why Kamui and Takumi are alike. The latter seems to be a moody and stubborn brat, in contrast to his liege who he has always seen as kind and yielding to the needs of others.

“He wants to prove himself and his worth,” Kamui notes softly, answering Jakob’s silent question. Her mind goes back to her days at the North Fortress. She would always would train so hard in hopes that King Garon would recognize her and let her free beyond walls of the fortress. It took her some time and the encouragement of her Nohrian siblings, but she was finally able to prove herself…. Or so she had thought. Sometimes she wonders what would have happened had she never left the North Fortress. Would things have been better? Or worse? For sure, her mother would be still among the living and Takumi… Kamui knew that Takumi had taken it the hardest when she had passed and Kamui can help but feel responsible.

“And…" The princess mutters, more to herself than to Jakob. "He seems a little lonely.”

-

A couple days have passed since Kamui allowed Takumi to participate in battle.

However, the Hoshidan prince isn’t much happier.

Instead of continuing his training after lunch like he normally would he marches himself up to Kamui’s quarters. Since he’s much calmer than he was during his last visit her remembers to knock on her door instead of just barging in. “Sister?”

“Yes?”

Takumi opens the door and finds his sister sitting on her bed with a book in her hands. He walks up to the edge of the bed and stands opposite her, his arms crossed. Kamui places a bookmark in the book and sets it down, giving Takumi her full attention.

Takumi takes a deep breath before he starts, his voice almost yelling, “Why did you place me in the back lines yesterday? I thought you were going to let me fight too!”

Kamui’s eyes widen at his sudden outburst and responds with the first words that come to her mind. “I’m sorry!”

Takumi realizes that his sister looks a bit frightened and he takes another breath. “I…I’m sorry. I mean… I just thought I would be on the front lines with you.”

“Oh… But… you’re an archer aren’t you?”

Takumi gives his sister a deadpan stare.

“I… don’t really know much about archery, but it seems like something that is better at a distance. Like, an enemy using a sword would be able to strike you down in the time that it takes you to string up an arrow…” She pauses as her expression turns contemplative. “But the Fujin Yumi has special arrows that just materialize, doesn’t it…? So maybe…”

While Kamui rambles on, Takumi can help but let out a sigh. How could he be so dumb? Of course it would only make sense to have someone, like him, who more adept at attacking at a distance bringing up the rear. Kamui was only trying to play to his strengths and here he was complaining at her for it. Takumi slumps his shoulders. He’s smarter than this, better than this, but for some reason he just keeps embarrassing himself in front of his sister.

The feeling of someone patting his head jerks Takumi from his thoughts. While he wasn’t paying attention, Kamui had somehow moved from against the wall on her bed to the edge closest to him. However, instead of getting off of the bed entirely she’s on her knees and leaning forward so she can reach his head. 

Takumi notices she’s leaning a little too far out and her legs are wobbling a little bit. Just as he thinks that Kamui might fall, she does. He steps forward as she lets out a small squeak and the princess falls into his arms in a bit of an awkward hug.

He feels her head shift a little and he looks down to see her giving him a bashful smile, “Thanks, Takumi.”

He feels his face flush a bit and averts his eyes, “Just be more careful, geez.”

“Mmkay.”

But instead of letting go like Takumi expects her to, the girl leans into Takumi more, her grip becoming stronger. His face heats up even more and he begins to sputter. “Wh-what are y-you doing?”

She doesn’t answer him at first and instead slowly moves her legs one then the other onto the floor. Once she’s standing she lets go of Takumi and looks at up at him with an apologetic smile. “I was getting off the bed.”

“C-couldn’t you think of a better way than that?” Takumi huffs.

“No…” She shifts a little. “But did you hear what I said before that? You kind of looked like you were spacing out.”

“…I didn’t.”

Kamui breaks out into a wide smile. “I said that you did a great job today! Because of you, the casualties were minimal!”

“Oh… Thank you, sister.”

For a split second, Kamui looks confused, as if she wasn’t expecting Takumi to thank her, but then she breaks out in a bright smile. There’s something about that smile that makes Takumi’s heart flutter, just a tiny bit, and he can’t help but return her smile with a small one of his own.

“I’ll be counting on you next time, Takumi!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Captain Obvious Takumi. I kinda feel like when he get's mad or upset he just spews out stuff.... even if it's dumb. ; A;
> 
> Also, I'm looking for a beta for this and/or Entangled, so if you wanna volunteer- let me know!
> 
> Or if you wanna fangirl over little brothers... I'm up for that too. o 3o


End file.
